NEW * Universal Soldier - Donovan {DES Stereo} 1965

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1965....#53 U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #5 UK (EP), #13 Australia, #9 Netherlands
DES Stereo by goroke / Original video edited and AI remastered with HQ stereo sound / To find out more about spectral editing and sound source separation, go to http://www.monotostereo.info/
"Universal Soldier" is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie's debut album It's My Way! in 1964. "Universal Soldier" was not an immediate popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the contemporary folk music community. It became a hit a year later when Donovan covered it, as did Glen Campbell. Sainte-Marie said of the song: "I wrote 'Universal Soldier' in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all."
By 1965, the song had caught the attention of budding folk singer Donovan, who recorded it using a similar arrangement to Buffy Sainte-Marie's original recording. In Donovan's version, Dachau became Liebau (Lubawka, Poland), a training center for Hitler Youth. Donovan's recording was released on an EP titled The Universal Soldier in the United Kingdom (August 15, 1965). The EP continued Donovan's run of high charting releases in the UK by reaching No. 5 on the charts. The tracks on the EP are "Universal Soldier"; "The Ballad of a Crystal Man" b/w "Do You Hear Me Now?" (Bert Jansch); "The War Drags On" (Mick Softley).
The lack of interest in the EP format within the United States led Hickory Records to release the song as a single in September 1965. Donovan's cover of "Universal Soldier" was backed with another track from the British EP: Bert Jansch's "Do You Hear Me Now?". Donovan's US release of "Universal Soldier" also became a hit, charting higher than his previous single "Colours" and ultimately reaching No. 53 on the Billboard charts. This success led Hickory Records to include the song on the United States release of Donovan's second album, Fairytale, replacing a cover of Bert Jansch's "Oh Deed I Do". Cash Box described it as "a plaintive, twangy, medium-paced message-song which takes a strong anti-war stand."
Sainte-Marie was glad that Donovan's success with this song got more people to hear it.